Grace and mercy from God our heavenly Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, be to my dear wife and sister in the Lord, for an affectionate greeting, all the days of your life, in the true earnestness of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
I greet you and all my five children most affectionately. Bring them up in the nurture of the Lord, and behave yourself as becomes holy women, in order to teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to be discreet, chaste, and obedient to their husbands; and firmly persevere in the same rule in which you stand. Eph. 6:4; Tit. 2:2.
May the Lord fit you for every good work that becomes your calling. Herewith I commend you to Almighty God, and to the word of his grace; may he grant that we may see each other in eternity.
By me, Joos Verbeeck, your husband, and brother in the Lord; written at Antwerp in prison,—where I am confined for the testimony of Jesus Christ—with my left hand, with great trouble, as my right hand has been tortured lame.
Greet all the friends, especially the ministers.
JULIUS KLAMPHERER, A. D. 1561.
In the year 1561, brother Julius Klampherer, from Italy was imprisoned at Venice, for his faith and the divine truth. Again and again they arraigned and examined him, and disputed with him, to cause him to apostatize; but he always defended himself wisely. He was permitted to put in writing that which he discussed, concerning his faith, with the papistic commissaries appointed for this purpose, and thus to defend himself, and give an account of his faith in his own hand-writing. When he had done this, and steadfastly adhered to it, they finally sentenced him to be cast into the depth of the sea; whereupon he answered and said: “This is nothing strange to me, for it was told me in the beginning of my conversion, that I must expect to die for the testimony of the truth; but it does seem strange to me, that the lords of Venice concur in such a purpose, and do not consider or weigh, that at the last day they will have to give an account before God, for innocent blood.”
Thereupon they replied to him, that they did not ask him concerning this. And as they did not relish what he said, they did not allow him to say anything further, but hurriedly remanded him to prison.
And being resolved to execute the sentence which they had pronounced, and to proceed with it, they, according to their custom, since he had been a priest, desecrated him, and then, in the dusk of an evening, under the pretense of leading him before the lord, took him out and unexpectedly cast him into the depth of the sea, and drowned him. However, he had expected nothing else; hence he was joyful, and constantly sang and praised God with a glad and valiant heart, until he obtained the crown of the pious martyrs and faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ. And though they drowned him secretly by night, yet it will be revealed at the great day of the Lord, and severely avenged.